How to move Mt. Fuji
Answer: I don't care ... can you write code?
I occasionally read Jeff Attwood over at Coding Horror for the same reasons I sometimes watch a few minutes of NASCAR while channel surfing ... you know why, I don't need to tell you. Ok, you caught me, I watched Danica's inaugural NASCAR race, but that's a different conversation.
But even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes, and in Monday's post there was a kernel of wisdom, albeit re-printed from a Mike Lin email, that I think I'm going to adopt ...
I started doing code interviews over the phone, using web meetings. My interview times were down to about 15 minutes each to identify people who just can't code ...
I think that is a very clever idea. I mentioned earlier that we give a coding test or more correctly exam, during in-office interviews, and at least once I've suspected that the candidate didn't really know what they were doing, despite muddling into a pseudo-working solution. Maybe this technique will help screen those folk whose resumes are decent, but whose skills are not. Might also be interesting to see if the reverse is true ... do we reject candidates that can code based on resume? We never get to see them because they never get to the office. Hmmmm..... gears turning.
BTW, I have no idea what "acceptable" answer is to "How to Move Mt. Fuji" .. .my answer is "one shovel full at a time."
